After holding at our No. 2 spot for the past 4 years, Germany-based Würth Group
is atop our list as the new largest distributor of industrial products. The company’s
sales rose by 8. 2 percent in 2016, helped by its 2015 acquisitions of U.S. distributors
Northern Safety & Industrial and Des Moines Bolt, and then its 2016 addition of
Birmingham, AL-based House of Threads. Würth Service Supply just moved into
a new $11.5 million headquarters in Greenwood, IN this summer. Würth Group’s
global headcount surpassed 73,000 during the first half of 2017, while sales
increased 7. 8 percent year-over-year.

Since the start of 2016, it’s been a period of restructuring at Grainger —
undoubtedly the largest MRO distributor in the U.S. The company has slashed
its branch footprint by nearly half and reallocating resources to areas such
as e-commerce, which surpassed 60 percent of total sales in 2016. CEO D.G.
Macpherson said he expects e-commerce to comprise at least 80 percent of sales
by 2022. Grainger launched strategic pricing initiatives throughout the first half of
2017 and rolled out web prices for its entire assortment on Aug. 1. In early June,
the company launched Gamut.com as a new e-commerce offering aimed to aid
professional customers in finding solutions quickly.

Sonepar’s North America subsidiary is traditionally known as an electrical
distributor, but made headway into the MRO market with its 2012 acquisition of
OneSource Distributors and then Industrial Distribution Group in 2014 — which was
No. 22 on that year’s Big 50 List. IDG and fellow Sonepar NA subsidiary Hagemeyer
North America merged to form Vallen Distribution in October 2016.

HD Supply sold off its Power Solutions business in 2015, its Interior Solutions
business in 2016 and then its Waterworks division for $2.5 billion this past June,
leaving the company with two business units — Facilities Maintenance and
Construction & Industrial. HD Supply said that e-commerce represented 60 percent
of its 2016 sales, up 5 percent from 2015. The company is in the midst of building its
new Atlanta headquarters, slated to open in early 2018.

France-based Air Liquide finalized its $10.3 billion acquisition of Airgas in May 2016,
following several rounds of antitrust approvals by FTC regulators. Its 2016 sales
soared 32 percent and helped Air Liquide’s sales improve almost 15 percent. Airgas
moves up two spots into our top five.